"But you forget that their footsteps are marked with tears, disasters, terror, and bloodshed."
"These are indispensable."
"Why?"
"Once, when a great commander was asked the same question, he replied, that you cannot make omelets without breaking eggs."
"Yes," remarked Becker, "but if you had read the anecdote entire, you would have seen that he was asked in return, 'What use there was for so many omelets.'"
"Added to which," continued Wolston, "that is not a normal career; there is no diploma required for it; it is an accident arising out of adventitious circumstances, sometimes fostered by ambition, but no course of study can produce a conqueror."
"What, then, is the use of military schools?"
"They are, to the best of my knowledge, instituted for rearing defenders for one's country, and not with a view to the subjugation of another's."
"My poor Fritz," said Mrs. Becker laughing, "I hope when you conquer half the world, you will find an occupation for your mother more in consonance with your dignity than mending your stockings."
"Then, again," continued Wolston, "war cannot be waged by a single individual."